The vessels which answered the calls were the light cruisers _Falmouth_ and _Nottingham_ with eight eight-inch and nine six-inch guns respectively, but before arriving the _Strassburg_ still had time to inflict more damage on the _Arethusa_. The cruisers _Köln_ and _Mainz_ joined the _Strassburg_, and the British vessels were having a bad time of it when their commander ordered the _Fearless_ to concentrate all fire on the _Strassburg_. This, and a concentrated fire from the destroyers, proved too strong for her and she turned eastward, disappearing in the mist off Helgoland. The _Mainz_ then received the attention of all available British guns, including the battle cruiser _Lion_, and soon fire broke out within her hold. Next her foremast, slowly tottering and then inclining more and more, crashed down upon her deck, a distorted mass. Following that came down one of her funnels. The fire which was raging aboard her was hampering her machinery, and her speed slackened; the moment to strike with a torpedo had come, and one of these "steel fishes" was sent against her hull below water. In the explosion which followed one of her boilers came out through her deck, ascended some fifty feet and dropped down near her bow; her engines stopped, and she began to settle slowly, her bow going down first.
It was now noon. From behind the veil of the surrounding mist came the _Falmouth_ and _Nottingham_, which with the guns in their turrets completely finished the hapless _Mainz_, and their sailors openly admired the bravery of her crew, which, while she sank, maintained perfect order and sang the German national air.
There was yet the _Köln_ with which the _Arethusa_ had to do battle. But by now the heavy British battle cruisers _Lion_ and _Queen Mary_ had also come down from the northwest to take part in the fighting, and letting the _Arethusa_ escape from the range of the light cruiser _Köln_, they went for the German, which, overpowered, fled toward Helgoland. While the chase was on the _Ariadne_ again made her appearance and came to the aid of the _Köln_, but the light cruiser _Ariadne_ carried no gun as effective in destructive power as the 13.5-inch guns of the _Lion_, and she, too, had to seek safety in flight. The British ships then finished the _Köln_; so badly was she hit that when the British small boats sought the spot where she quickly sank they found not a man of her crew afloat. Every man of the 370 of her crew perished.